Searching for Answers

My husband, dx with AAIII 6-07 with Surgery at Duke 3/08  has been on several different treatments. He did radiation with Temodar and then 9 months of Temodar until a recurrence.  Since Feb. he has done Avastin, then Avastin and CPT 11, then Avastin, CPT 11 and Carbo.  His last MRI showed the enhancing spots still gone, but the T2 and Flair images showed progression of low grade tumor.  Not alot of difference in one month, but the NO went back to July and it showed significant changes.  His symptoms had been worsening this past month, but not extremely bad.  The past 2 weeks he had been having some minor dizziness and word finding problems.  Then Tuesday morning after getting to work, he just all of a sudden became like he was drunk.  No balance, dizzy, got sick to his stomach. Since then he has been at home.  We have started Decadron and he is wearing a patch behind his ear to try and help. He seems to get some better as the day goes on, but the dizziness never goes away.  He cannot function now because of it. He has a hard time walking around and focusing.  We have now gone to Etoposide and Cytoxan and I'm trying to get his NO to add Tamoxifen.  She wants to add Tarceva next month.  Has anyone experienced this dizziness come on so suddenly?   We have checked his seizure med levels to make sure that wasn't too high and also his ears to see if he had fluid.  No to both those.  Has anyone had then and found something that worked with the dizziness?  We are praying so hard that the Lord shrinks this thing so the dizziness will go away.  He is a minister and wants so badly to be able to preach.  He is great otherwise.  Still strong and was working right up until Tuesday.  He had preached the Sunday before. This road we are on sure is a hard one...one day at a time...drawing strength from the Lord...that is the only way I can do it.

Hi Darlin',

This can all be so scary can't it?  I'm glad you guys went to Duke...we've had great success with the team there.  Tell your hubby that over 100 kids will be praying for him as of 8:30 tomorrow a.m (my students ages 10 - 13).  As we've gone through this wilderness, we've realized that God is even nearer than we'd ever imagined.  Perhaps He wants you and your hubby all to Himself for a change.

Something you and hubby can do to keep his ministry going is to open a Caring Bridge site.  It's super easy, and you can share your story and message with anyone, and you can give medical updates without having to repeat yourself to exhaustion.  Here is the address for my hubby, Steve's.  Perhaps it will give you something to do while you rest.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/stevecalloway

Steve too has experienced some symptoms that have come on suddenly.  NO says that he needs to learn that he has a "new" brain that needs a lot more rest than the old one.  Hard for Steve to accept - paramedic/firefighter.

I won't take anymore space here, but check out the site and may God bless you.

all love, janni (wife of Steve gbm iv 11/07)

Thank you for your reply and especially thank you for praying for Rick.  We do have a web site that our son put together when Rick had surgery in 2008.  He does web sites for a living, so I let him do it and am now so glad that he did.  It has been a life line for me to the people we have served in so many different states.  It is www.joshstarr.us /rick  or you can google inside rick's brain.  Anyone out there that has battled tumor related dizziness please post.

Debbie